Price for dam repairs less than estimated cost
Repairs to Mount Marion Dam came in under the $300,000 cost that was estimated more than a year ago.
SAUGERTIES, N.Y. >> Repairs to Mount Marion Dam across the Plattekill Creek have come in under the $300,000 cost that was estimated when the project was authorized for state funding more than a year ago.
A state Governor’s Office for Storm Recovery press release Friday said the project was completed at $278,000 to fix a structure that was damaged by Tropical Storm Irene in 2011.
“The project addressed several breaches in the original structure ... (and) re-establishes an adequate water supply in the Plattekill
Creek that will support the full capacity of the nearby Mount Marion Fire Company,” state officials wrote.
The dam holds back water in an area along Glasco Turnpike near the Mount Marion Park residential neighborhood, which has 210 homes. Town officials said the amount of water held back by the dam was not enough to maintain required safety ratings for the nearby Mount Marion Elementary School.
Town Highway Superintendent Douglas Myer last year said a tank used to fill fire trucks would have been drained in slightly over an hour if the dam’s impoundment area was not increased.
“The (insurance) rating there is ... 1,500 gallons (of water) a minute for three hours,” he said. “The water tank that feeds
Mount Marion Park that the school is hooked up to is 100,000 gallons.
The town owns most of the dam, which was built as a grist mill in the early 1900s, while the north abutment is owned by Wallace Michaels.
“When the Mount Marion Dam was first constructed 100 years ago, few could have predicted the modern-day realities of increasingly frequent storms, rising seas and climate change,” said Alana Agosto, executive director of the community reconstruction and infrastructure programs for the Governor’s Office for Storm Recovery.
Town Board members last year hired Bast Hatfield to make the repairs, which included increasing the 8-foot tall dam’s length from 150 feet to 165 feet.
“Related activities also involved erosion and sediment control measures, stream protection measures and selective demolition,” state officials wrote.
Supervisor Fred Costello said in the press release that successive storms in 2011 were significant because they show how vulnerable residents are to flooding.
“Hurricane Irene and Tropical Storm Lee were life-changing events for our community that we never want to relive,” he said.